ET deals: Dell XPS 8500 Core i7 desktop for $699

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Many of us like to build our own computers from scratch. Sure, the ability to customize every card, chip, and fan has its benefits, and will get you slightly more horsepower for your dollar, but building your own PC has its downsides.

All of those components are protected by their own individual warranties, which can be minimal or non-existent depending the part, but the biggest headache comes with compatibility problems between components. Raise your hand (er, leave a comment) if you’ve ever chased random reboots down to sticks of RAM or a fault power supply.

But with deals like this XPS 8500, which we’ve featured in the past bundled with an LCD, you don’t have to sacrifice anything. This model has the specs you’re looking for, has room to grow, at comes a price that will make you put down that motherboard manual.

Today’s deal is for an XPS 8500 equipped with an Ivy Bridge Core i7-3770 quad-core processor, which clocks between 3.4GHz and 3.9GHz depending on the whims of Intel’s Turbo Boost. The AMD Radeon HD 7570 graphics card with 1GB GDDR5 RAM is probably the weakest piece of this machine, but still has enough graphics horsepower to get your gaming on at lower resolutions. If you are lusting for more pixel-pushing power, you can customize this model with up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 660 1.5GB GDDR5 card as well.

Dell fills out the rest of the specs on this machine well enough that you don’t have to worry about upgrading anything else soon. A 1TB hard drive provides plenty of storage space and you get 8GB of DDR3 RAM to ensure smooth performance from the time you push the power button.

The list of standard features is solid, with goodies like 802.11n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, six USB 3.0 ports, six USB 2.0 ports (one of which will charge a mobile device), gigabit ethernet, both VGA and HDMI video outputs, 19-in-1 media card reader, and 12 months of McAfee Security subscription.

Should you have any problems with this machine, Dell backs it up with 1 year of in-home warranty service and 24×7 premium phone support (i.e. no script readers asking you to check that the power cord is plugged in). This top-to-bottom loaded machine normally runs $799.99, but for a limited time you can snag it with $100 instant savings at just $699.99 with free shipping.

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